Originally Posted by codename47
I just realized that I can't have everything in a single party. So, I'll just keep replaying this awesome game.

Almost. I spend some days figuring out a party in which every character was planned to change his class later in the game, having a party that works in the beginning and which profits from the learned skills it when "upgrading" to another class later on. So I ended up with a party which gained most special abilities from 12 different classes. The party was quite good, however there was not much replayability value left afterwards, because I've seen most special skills by then already.

Tried a run with a single character recently but this isn't fun at all, because you are running away from monsters all the time. This would be nice, if the monsters wouldn't level with you, because you'd gain 6x times the experience levelling up like lightning.

Though writing about it, you could add in lots of RPCs. Actually that could be kinda funny too if you have a party with 7 RPCs . Must be a really f**cked up party though, because many of them won't go into certain locations with you, which would mess up the experience gained. Still… the idea has something to it…

The fighters on the front and valkyries in the middle with their extended weapon rock in any closed combat, as there are 4 closed combat attacks. In my opinion the ranged weapons hit not often enough and not strong enough, therefore one is faster to run to the enemy and attack with closed combat. The wizards on the back.
I went to Rapax Castle first and became Templar at Level 10 (after killing almost every Umpani in the Umpani Base), and then I went into the Trynton. The Rapax in the Trynton Tree were actually friendly to me. However they just stood in the room and greeted me, nothing more to it. The Rapax in the Mountain Wilderness who were about to kill some of the Arnikas Brotherhood were also friendly towards me. Unfortunately once I appeared they didn't attack the Arnika Brotherhood member at all… (usually they do if you are not a Rapax Templar yet, so you "should help the Brotherhood") that was kinda boring. Maybe it would have worked if I had attacked the Brotherhood in Arnika first.

What I want to add is: it's quite ok to be a Rapax and walking around with the curse which reduces your abilities. If it is your fighter, he will regenerate each -1 Healthpoint within a few seconds. Some stats are also less than normal, but you can live with it. It would be worth to play the game to end this way, and not killing Al Sedexus, and (maybe not freeing the Rapax Queen). If I recall correctly and you kill Al-Sedexus then you suddenly have Rapax enemies in the Rapax Rift again. Only the Templars will be friendly to you, but other Rapax Patrols will again attack you. So in order to stay friendly with all Rapax types one should suck it up and remain with the "curse". Also from my first walkthrough I remember that later in the game you will meet much more often and random Rapax patrols in different parts of the map. This can be annoying if you are enemy to them and don't like to get into new fights all the time.

Final tips:
In my first game I had a hard time killing Don Barlone, the chief Rattkin (because I almost never hit him), however after a hint which said "put the experience points into "Dexterity" my characters almost always hit. And as someone else said: you don't need to develop "Speed" at all. Better put the remaining points into "Senses". If you have the "Haste" spell you gain +50 points or more in "Speed" which I recently discovered (my fighter had 50 Speed, and after "Haste" he had something about 120+).

I won't end this game though, these turn based fights are quite annoying in their length. Despite the wizfast-mod it always seems there is a 1-5 seconds "waiting time" before an opponent actually makes his movement.

If I would start again I'd try a party where the characters use weapons like mace, flail, bullwhip, throwing star, morning star, warhammer etc. as weapons. I think these weapons are less used/liked? from all available, but I have seen that many of these have very very cool status effects, e.g. "Blind", "K.O", "Stun", higher kill ratio, etc… And if you paralyze or K.O. the opponent, the fight is always won, because he suffers double damage each time.
Or starting with a solo character. After having read the guide I understand how this works now and it sounds really interesting…).

This game really offers amazing replayability value. A masterpiece with no successor. A pity. Dragon Age never provoked enough motivation to try out different parties/approaches to play (maybe due to the 0815 races… human, dwarf, elf).

As much as I'd like to avoid necroing this thread, I had to come back.

Many months have passed since I first finished the game with my first party:
Dracon Fighter
Felpurr Monk
Dwarf Priest
Faerie Mage
Human Gadgeteer
Mook Ranger

Now, I wanted to try the Lord. I've heard a lot of bad stuff about him. Is it true that he is strictly worse than a Valkyrie? Anyways, here is my party for the second run:
Dracon Fighter
Human Lord (using Staff of Doom for now, pretty good)
Faerie Ninja (aiming for a Cane of Corpus)
Faerie Bishop (wiz/psi)
Hobbit Gadgeteer
Mook Ranger

I wanted to ask if there's a comprehensive list of all the unique items in the game. Like Bloodlust, Staff of Doom, Winterwand, etc?

I haven't seen most of the powerful items, and it seems like it's easier to make a party with certain things planned ahead.

Also, can someone give me tips on when I should enter a certain area? When I went to the Mountain Wilderness, I think I was pretty lucky I got out alive with the Staff of Doom. Along the way I've met Scorchers and Golems. Needless to say, I had to avoid the Scorchers like the plague.

If you're relying on "cheat death" past about level 5, you're in real trouble. Valks are decent if you want someone to use polearms, and they make decent backup healers. Beyond that, remarkably bland, if solid.

Lords are very hard to build properly. They have the potential to be much, much more powerful than valks, but it takes some real good development to realize that potential. The "ultimate" build is to dual wield maces with two specific weapons. With that build, a lord is a real monster. Without going that route, lords will be adequate in melee, adequate as a backup healer (not as good as a valk), and leave you feeling like something's not quite right.

Level-wise, there's a lot of flexbility where you go when, but you can certainly get into trouble if you're not careful. Arnika by level 7, Trynton by level 10, Sea Caves in the mid teens, Mountain wilderness around level 20. Those are mostly very flexible depending on your party build, your patience, and your personal tactical abilities.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Great Season! / / Detroit Red Wings: Another rollercoaster this year?

Originally Posted by dteowner
If you're relying on "cheat death" past about level 5, you're in real trouble. Valks are decent if you want someone to use polearms, and they make decent backup healers. Beyond that, remarkably bland, if solid.

Lords are very hard to build properly. They have the potential to be much, much more powerful than valks, but it takes some real good development to realize that potential. The "ultimate" build is to dual wield maces with two specific weapons. With that build, a lord is a real monster. Without going that route, lords will be adequate in melee, adequate as a backup healer (not as good as a valk), and leave you feeling like something's not quite right.

Level-wise, there's a lot of flexbility where you go when, but you can certainly get into trouble if you're not careful. Arnika by level 7, Trynton by level 10, Sea Caves in the mid teens, Mountain wilderness around level 20. Those are mostly very flexible depending on your party build, your patience, and your personal tactical abilities.

Lord - I assume one of those weapons is the Diamond Eyes, I'm not sure which main hand mace you're talking about. Anyways, I am prepared to use either a mace/mace combo or a staff, since I've prepared for both.

So far I've managed to build up my magical abilities for my hybrids a lot better than in my last party. Can you imagine that I've played the game without using portal spells?

For unique items, I forgot to ask for their locations. I remember that the Diamond Eyes is somewhere in the Mountain Wilderness area, center. It's in a tomb along with that Giant's Sword.

EDIT: After looking at the list of weapons available in the game, I assume you mean the Vampire Chain + Diamond Eyes combo. Really, the best maces in the game. Right?

EDIT #2: In a normal game (without mods) is it possible to reach high levels?

I'm just asking, because I remember I finished the first run with my characters being 23-26 at best. I don't remember my Omnigun being an MK-12.

There's a mace that Ferro sells that might be as good as the Vampire Chain (I think the name is Mauler?) for the primary, but yes, you've got the idea.

I think the highest level I've made with a 6-toon party on normal is 28, and that entailed doing everything available in the game, particularly the double agent path and all 3 easter egg dungeons. IIRC, my obligatory "expert ironman solo faerie ninja, cuz I'm just too cool" run got to level 34.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Great Season! / / Detroit Red Wings: Another rollercoaster this year?

That's actually one of the toughest fights in the game for the level you're expected to hit it, probably second to Nessie. I wouldn't even attempt it below level 15 and I think I usually try to get to 17-18 before I take that plunge.

It's actually been a while since my most recent run, so my memory is a little dusty. Take all these level numbers I'm throwing around with a pinch of salt.

— Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
Dallas Cowboys: Great Season! / / Detroit Red Wings: Another rollercoaster this year?

I am back to modding again, and this thread is interesting in that it seems to indicate that the vast majority of Wiz 8 players use a full party, which i never have done.
This is important because it means that i need to test for battle/monster strength with a full party in order to discern most players experience of how tough a battle will be.